Appellate

  • April 15, 2026

    'Law, Not Liturgy'?: 9th Circ. Split Over Faith Bias COVID Suit

    Eight judges dissented Wednesday from the denial of an en banc Ninth Circuit rehearing of a panel's decision not to revive a Christian hospital worker's religious bias lawsuit alleging she was fired for refusing COVID-19 nasal testing, with one dissenting judge saying "courts are unwelcome guests" when deciding the veracity of an individual's belief.

  • April 15, 2026

    Judge Ices Calif. Climate Suit As Justices Mull Boulder Case

    A California state court judge has put on hold coordinated climate litigation that state and local governments have filed against oil and gas companies while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar case brought by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado.

  • April 15, 2026

    Zillow, Redfin Can't Use 4th Circ. Ruling In Antitrust Suit

    The Federal Trade Commission and multiple states on Wednesday filed a proposed response pushing back on Zillow and Redfin Corp.'s bid to cite a published Fourth Circuit decision they say supports their attempt to dismiss the antitrust suit brought by the agency and states.

  • April 15, 2026

    11th Circ. Nixes Challenge To Atlanta Billboard Regs

    The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday threw out a Georgia federal judge's ruling that the city of Atlanta's signage ordinance was illegal under the First Amendment, holding that the lower court "erred as to both theories" advanced by a local billboard owner.

  • April 15, 2026

    Fed. Circ. OKs Denial Of Most Claims In Golf Club Patent App

    The Federal Circuit said Wednesday it won't revive claims from a patent application for a golf club head by Cobra Golf, backing findings from federal patent officials that several claims in the application were obvious.

  • April 15, 2026

    737 Max Families Ask Full 5th Circ. To Weigh DOJ-Boeing Deal

    Families of 737 Max 8 crash victims have asked the full Fifth Circuit to review a panel's recent decision accepting the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to criminally prosecute Boeing for allegedly conspiring to defraud safety regulators, saying it allows corporate defendants to game the courts through a "mootness" loophole.

  • April 15, 2026

    9th Circ. Skeptical About Erasing Rail Workers' $7.8M Vax Win

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday appeared likely to uphold a $7.8 million verdict for former San Francisco public rail employees who were ousted after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine on faith-based grounds, with one judge saying the transit system's argument would mean public health guidance effectively cancels out religious rights.  

  • April 15, 2026

    Ga. Panel Backs Railroad In Residents' Land Seizure Suit

    A Georgia appellate panel Wednesday backed a railroad's win in a fight with local residents opposing the condemnation of their property for new construction, finding insufficient evidence to overturn a ruling from the state's utility regulatory body that greenlighted the taking.

  • April 15, 2026

    Chamber Backs 9th Circ. Rehearing Of Funko Investor Suit

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing Funko Inc.'s call for Ninth Circuit to rehear an investor dispute over the toy-maker's write-down of excessive inventory, arguing that the court's decision to revive the lawsuit "degrades a critical firewall against abusive litigation."

  • April 15, 2026

    Sotomayor Apologizes For 'Hurtful' Comments About Kavanaugh

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly apologized Wednesday for comments she made at a University of Kansas appearance earlier this month criticizing Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

  • April 15, 2026

    8th Circ. Rejects Title IX Bid To Bar Trans Athlete From Playing

    A nonprofit founded for "defending women's sports" cannot use Title IX to block a Minnesota high school athletics bylaw allowing a trans girl to compete in girls softball, the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday, finding there were no claims of intentional discrimination.

  • April 15, 2026

    Texas Panel Backs Atty Sanctions, Finding He Misled Client

    A Texas appeals court has upheld a judgment from a lower court sanctioning an attorney for misleading a client into believing that his firm could offer representation in a wrongful death suit, saying that the evidence was sufficient to support his loss in the lower court.

  • April 15, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Make It Harder To Undo CICA Stay Overrides

    The Federal Circuit declined to impose a heightened standard of review when judges are considering a federal agency's decision to override an automatic pause on contract performance during a bid protest at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

  • April 15, 2026

    2nd Circ. Backs $58M IcomTech Ponzi Convictions, Sentences

    The Second Circuit upheld convictions and judgments for defendants behind a $58 million IcomTech cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme after rejecting their arguments that there's no evidence they knew it was a fraud, ruling Wednesday "sufficient red flags existed" for the lower court to properly provide a "conscious avoidance" jury instruction.

  • April 15, 2026

    Doctor's Coaching Mandate Didn't Violate ADA, 11th Circ. Says

    The Eleventh Circuit backed the dismissal Wednesday of a urologist's suit claiming Emory University fired him for refusing to undergo a mental health probe, ruling the professional coaching sessions he was asked to attend did not amount to medical exams.

  • April 15, 2026

    Fla. Panel Orders New Trial For 'Excessive' $1M Crash Verdict

    A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday vacated a $1 million verdict in a suit over an auto collision and ordered a new trial, finding the jury's findings were inconsistent and likely the result of a "compromise" verdict.

  • April 15, 2026

    7th Circ. Questions Resort Co.'s 'Radio Silence' On Arbitration

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday pressed an attorney for a resort company that is arguing a lower court incorrectly found it waived its right to arbitrate Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against more than 1,000 class members to address why it didn't raise the subject of arbitration earlier as it litigated the case over seven years.

  • April 15, 2026

    NJ Towns Urge 3rd Circ. To Revive Suit Over Housing Law

    A group of New Jersey municipalities and elected officials told the Third Circuit they have Article III standing for their tossed suit against the state government over a 2024 law that they claim unfairly forces them to rezone areas for affordable housing.

  • April 15, 2026

    Firings Over Vax Refusals Arbitrable, Police Union Tells Court

    The union representing Massachusetts state police troopers told an intermediate appellate court Wednesday that disagreement over the meaning of "just cause" triggers a right to arbitrate disciplinary actions, including the firings of 13 officers over their refusal to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

  • April 15, 2026

    McElroy Deutsch, Atty Beat Malpractice Claims Over Fraud Suit

    The New Jersey state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed a ruling throwing out a $300,000 malpractice suit against a former McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP partner, finding the trial judge correctly found the plaintiff's expert offered speculative, inadmissible net opinions.

  • April 15, 2026

    Former Judge To Head New NJ Attorney Readmission Board

    The New Jersey Supreme Court announced this week the lineup of a new committee that will consider disbarred attorneys' applications for readmission, with a former state court judge of over 20 years at the head of the board.

  • April 15, 2026

    Trade Group Shelves EPA Emissions Rule Fight For 6 Months

    The American Petroleum Institute is pausing its challenge to new power plant emissions standards for six months while the Environmental Protection Agency weighs the group's administrative petition for reconsideration, even as another energy trade group looks to oppose environmental and public health groups in their continuing fight against the standards.

  • April 15, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Touch DraftKings Win In PTAB Fight

    In a one-word decision Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that found a peer-to-peer gaming patent challenged by DraftKings was not valid.

  • April 15, 2026

    Trump's 8th Circ. Pick Pressed On Leonard Leo Ties

    President Donald Trump's nominee for the Eighth Circuit, who represented Trump in the two cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, came under scrutiny Wednesday for his affiliation with groups linked to longtime Federalist Society executive and Republican fundraiser Leonard Leo.

  • April 15, 2026

    Nadine Menendez Seeks Bail Pending 2nd Circ. Appeal

    Nadine Menendez urged a Manhattan federal judge to keep her free while she challenges her conviction, arguing that prosecutors deprived her of her constitutional right to the counsel of her choice.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    CBP's $166B Tariff Refund Portal Needs 4 Safeguards

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    Before launching its automated web portal to process tariff-refund disbursements on April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection should apply the expensive lessons learned from the pandemic-era employee retention credit, says Peter Gariepy at RubinBrown.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: Tracing Paths To Award Recovery

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    Recent subpoenas to Adidas and Hilton deployed in Blasket Renewables v. Spain, pending in D.C. federal court, show arbitration award recovery to be a disciplined exercise in constructing visibility, applying pressure and sequencing procedural advantage, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • 5 Key Questions Attys Should Ask About Statistical Analyses

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    Even attorneys without a background in statistics can effectively vet the general concepts of a statistical analysis by asking targeted questions and can thereby reinforce the credibility and relevance of expert testimony — or expose its weaknesses, say Katrina Schydlower and Christopher Cunio at Hunton and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: April Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from three recent rulings involving allegations of racial discrimination in mortgage applications, health insurance networks and actual cash value losses.

  • 'Made In America' EO May Not Survive Section 230

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in advertising directs the Federal Trade Commission to deem online marketplaces' failure to verify third-party origin claims as unlawful, but such a rule would likely run into Section 230's publisher immunity doctrine, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Assessing EcoFactor's Impact On Damages Experts' Opinions

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    Though the Federal Circuit's ruling in EcoFactor v. Google gave rise to concerns that damages experts would be forced to rely on undisputed facts, recent case law suggests that those concerns are unwarranted, says Christopher Loh at Venable.

  • High Court Cert Case Would Test Sovereign Award Immunity

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    The D.C. Circuit's July 2025 Amaplat Mauritius v. Zimbabwe Mining Development decision appears to create a circuit split while elevating form over substance in a manner that, if left unreviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, could bar the courthouse doors for creditors holding arbitration awards against recalcitrant foreign sovereigns, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • CFTC Actions Show Prediction Market Insider Trading Risks

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    It is a myth that insider trading law does not apply in prediction markets, as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement actions illustrate that it has full authority to pursue such cases federally — and intends to, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • 2nd Circ. Clarifies When Prior Good Acts May Be Admissible

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in U.S. v. Cardenas, vacating a drug conspiracy conviction over improperly excluded evidence, indicates that evidence of prior good acts may be admissible to corroborate a defendant's testimony about their understanding of events and intent, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

  • Lockdown To Ledger: COVID Rulings Inform Crypto Coverage

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    As cryptocurrencies move deeper into mainstream financial markets, courts tasked with determining whether traditional insurance policies respond to digital asset losses have been evaluating coverage through the analytical framework of COVID-19 business interruption litigation, with one key recurring theme, say attorneys at Kennedys.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

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    Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

  • The Federal Circuit's Evolving View Of Trade Secrets

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    In recent years, the Federal Circuit's approach to defining "readily ascertainable" information and determining sufficiency of trade secret identification has shifted, trending away from other circuits and potentially presenting a higher bar for trade secrets plaintiffs, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • What Justices' Review Of Guam Case Will Mean For Permitting

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    In U.S. Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, the U.S. Supreme Court will address whether a federal agency's permit application is a final decision that courts can review — a question whose answer could reshape the timing and strategy of environmental litigation across the federal permitting landscape, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

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